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While you can grow almost anything hydroponically, some vegetables will thrive in hydroponic systems more than others. What will grow best in your water garden depends on the particular system you decide to use. For beginners, a simple raft system is ideal. It’s easy to make, doesn’t cost much to get going and will give you vegetables much more quickly than conventional gardening methods. Choose vegetables that don’t mind moisture and that don’t get too big for the raft.

Lettuce

Leaf lettuce is an excellent choice for hydroponic growing. It thrives in the simplest of setups and doesn’t need a lot of extra attention. You can harvest the outer leaves of your lettuce as it grows, meaning that you’ll end up with an extended harvest of crisp, fresh lettuce. As you cut the outer leaves away, the inner leaves quickly grow to take their place. Romaine, Bibb lettuce and any other leafy type of lettuce will thrive. Plant your favorites or use several types to give you some variety.

Leafy Greens

Just like lettuce, most other leafy green vegetables will grow well in a hydroponic system. Spinach not only thrives, but also you get the added advantage of no more sandy grit down in your spinach. Other good leafy green choices are kale, arugula, mustard greens, watercress and Swiss chard. Harvest these all at once or snip off a bit at a time, leaving the rest of the plant to keep growing. Don’t let them get too big for your setup, since overly large greens may suffer from lack of air circulation.

Cucumbers

Bush cucumbers will produce bountiful hydroponic crops, but they’re likely to need some support to keep them from tipping over as they grow. Miniature cucumber plants, such as those developed for container growing, work best in a hydroponic raft system. Given enough space and support, any of them will grow. Check the cukes daily once they start to form, since the hydroponic environment may result in plants that grow much faster than you may expect.

Tips

Pay attention to all of the needs of your vegetables, not just things related to hydroponics. No matter how you grow them, cool weather crops still do best when it’s not hot, and warm weather crops love the heat. They also need plenty of light; your vegetables are likely to need at least eight hours per day of direct sunlight. Flowering and fruiting plants need full-spectrum light, but greens grow well under an inexpensive fluorescent shop light placed just above their tops. If you try cucumbers, they’ll need sunlight or a full-spectrum grow light to be able to produce.